Messages

If after talking to his mother played the piano and then go upstairs and downstairs game breaks,
often need to click on the SAVE...

Is there a specific error message when it breaks? This doesn't happen when I try to reproduce it... I'll look into it when I get home from work.

this game VERY bad tested, I found the SECOND bug: after a talking with the waiter - all clickable false

You can't interact with things or you can't see the interaction bar at the bottom? Interactions should still work (with the space button or inventory buttons). I'll check this one out this afternoon too. Thanks for the heads up!

PS: the first claim to the title of the best ASG game in 2015
the first claim to the most crude ASG game in 2015

very interesting innovative game, the first claim to the title of the best ASG game in 2015
i am published "Providence" on the very popular Russian tracker

Awesome! Thanks

game bad tested, I found a bug

That is weird! The camera should be following you when you're on the ground floor! I'll look into it!
Edit: Found it. It's related to the camera being locked on the first and second floor. It only happens if you hold the down or up key down while walking up and down the stairs. A simple fix is to walk up the stairs and down again. I'll fix this in the first patched version!

I've played it, and I really like the story. The graphics are wonderful, but for some reason, the game stuttered for me most of the time (on some backgrounds more on some less), and this really ruined my immersion, especially because the stutter affected sublime compositions of Chopin. It is probably just my computer, since it is rather old. Great game anyways, short, but great.

Yeah, the resolution might be too high for older computers. I figured this out late in the process and unfortunately there wasn't any quick fix (as far as I know) with hundreds of sprites already done. I wish there was a easy way to put out a lower resolution version as well! I'll put up a warning in the description of the game. Anyway, thanks for the kind words. You can listen to the music on musopen.org, it really is a great initiative! Free Chopin!

One thing: You might want to give a general genre and/or slight story intro in the first post. No spoilers of course, but let people know if they are in for a comedy...a drama...a horror story...etc
You might also want to explicitly say that this game was created with AGS. As it's in the AGS archives I know this sounds like a no-brainer but somebody will probably ask you this question in this thread pretty soon...

I actually meant to do this, but decided the player should come into the game without any information so that he/she could interpret it freely. I'll write up a small description about the setting though!

You might also want to explicitly say that this game was created with AGS. As it's in the AGS archives I know this sounds like a no-brainer but somebody will probably ask you this question in this thread pretty soon...

Done! Thanks for the advice

Finally released!

[Providence]

Eight Bit Skyline presents
Providence

Providence is an interactive short story drama about three people who share a common destiny, and how they come to find it.

The game is developed with the Adventure Game Studio engine for Windows PC. It features a Frédéric Chopin soundtrack from The Free Chopin Kickstarter by MusOpen. Find out more about it here.

Providence is freeware.

Notice: Providence runs in 720p and this can cause slowdowns on older computers. If you experience this try tweaking vertical sync and/or resolution in winsetup.exe.

Trailer:
[embed=800,450]<iframe width="800" height="450 src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MjAwjyZDRgQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/embed]

Screenshots:



Download from AGS archives!

Technical information:

• Version: 1.1
• Download size: 120 mb
• Installed size: 600 mb
• Resolution: 720p
• Supported systems: Win XP/Vista/7 (tested)

Official website: Providence.eightbitskyline.com

Press:
IndieVault.it: Providence: tre destini si mescolano, sulle note di Chopin (4.2.15)
Welt.de: Intensiv interaktive Kurzgeschichte (26.1.15)
Freeware-Empfehlung: Providence (23.01.15)
RockPaperShotgun.com: Freeware Garden: Providence (22.01.15)
Gamer.no: Ta en titt på dette norske gratisspillet (21.01.15)
NiveloCulto.com: Providence: La inevitabilidad del destino (16.01.15)
KillScreenDaily.com: Providence takes you down the dark, noir journey of everyday life (15.01.15)
GameJolt.com: Featured Game: Untangle three entwined destinies in the narrative platformer "Providence" (13.01.15)
Warpdoor.com: Providence (Eight Bit Skyline) (09.01.15)
P911-magazine.com: Jouons sur du Chopin (06.01.15)

Thanks for the kind words!

I feel, though, that the "prelude" in the video is played a bit too fast for my taste! (but it is just my opinion, it might be even better if played this way, if it is a thriller, as you said)

As for this I totally agree. The version in the game will be slower, and in better quality. It's just a matter of waiting for the recordings from the Musopen Chopin Kickstarter I contributed to! :-)

Unique style! Very professional looking. Great work!

Thanks! You're too kind

Are you looking for testers? I would like to playtest the game

I'll PM you soon, still working on some small niggles with the game!

Looks interesting and atmospheric. And the music is really impressive

Thanks! And Chopin is always great... There will be a lot of nice tunes from him in the game!

Wow It looks fantasic!! , I love the style of the game and it sounds really interesting

Thanks! Hope you'll like it once you play it as well!

Thanks for kind words AnasAbdin and Tabata!

Screenshots added :-)

[Tagline:]

Decided to take a break developing the next game after Skumring and made this little solo project...

Tagline:
An old man isolated in retirement in a high-rise building outside of town. A little boy living on a farm out by the mountains with his father and mother. A young assassin after targets fed to him by a mysterious stranger. Uncover all the pieces of the mysterious puzzle and find out how they are connected in...

Providence!

Features:

• An interactive thriller spanning several decades.
• A story about life, death and destiny, with alternative solutions.
• Three playable characters.
• Varied locations, including a functionalist retro villa and a sun bathed hotel by the coast.
• All set to a soundtrack consisting of classic tunes by Frédéric Chopin.

Trailer:
[embed=640,360]<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MjAwjyZDRgQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/embed]

Screenshots:


Progress:
Graphics: 100%
Scripting: 100%
Music: 100%
Sound: 100%

Expected release: Fall 2014

Beta testing:
The game is currently finished!

Official website:
Providence.eightbitskyline.com

Replace "==" with "="

I have to go to bed so I'll try it some more in the morning, but... It seems to work just like I wanted it to! Thanks a lot for the help, you're great!

The error is gone, but replaced with another one
This time the error relates to line 5 in the code under:

Code: ags

function on_key_press(eKeyCode k)
{
  if (k != eKeySpace) return;
  ClaimEvent();
  Region *r == Region.GetAtRoomXY(player.x, player.y);
  
  // region 1
  if (r.ID == 1) {
    if (cEgo.Baseline == 720){
      oFront1.TweenTransparency(1.0, 100, eEaseOutTween, eNoBlockTween);
      cEgo.Baseline = 716;
    }
    else {
      oFront1.TweenTransparency(1.0, 0, eEaseOutTween, eNoBlockTween);
      cEgo.Baseline = 720;
    }
  }
 
  // region 2
  if (r.ID == 2) {
    ...
  }
 
  on_call(r.ID);  // update text
}

Error is: Expected ',' or ';', not '=='

I believe that's what the compiler is complaining about.

You are right! The parse error is gone However I now get a new error: Undefined symbol 'lbl'. I'm not sure how or where for that matter I should define it.

use r.ID instead

Yeah, I did that, but then I got a parse error at 'r' instead!

You can now add this to the room script:

Code: ags

function on_call(rid) {
  String action = "";
  if (rid == 1) {
    if (player.Baseline == 716) action = "go outside";
    else action = "go inside";
  }
  if (rid == 2) action = "examine note";
  if (rid == 3) {
    // dynamic text depending on room variable
    if (box_opened) action = "search box";
    else action = "open box";
  }
  ...
  lblAction.Text = lbl;  // lblAction is the label's script name
  gText.Visible = true;
}

If you put this function near the top, you can call it to update the line: on_call(1);

I'm getting a Parse error at function on_call(rid):
Error (line 3): PE3: Parse error at 'rid'

gText is a GUI with blank background and a single label, showing the text.

It works like! Thank you! I tried using @OVERHOTSPOT@ in the text label, but this is for mouse over. What code can I use here?

I'd find it much more logical that the text is dynamic and will show whatever action pressing space will execute ("examine note", "open safe", etc.)

Yeah, I do agree with this. I just wanted to keep the screen completely clean (no inventory visible), but I can see that this is a better solution!

However, this leads to another problem. I have a system where the player walks along the same x-axis wether he is inside a building or not. Every location has both a inside and an outside (like an apartment with a balcony). When you stand by the door region SPACE lets you go inside or outside, depending on where you are. The player does not change position, I just use the cEgo.Baseline (a higher number for outside) and fade exteriors away with the Tween Module.

This causes some of the region to have multiple interactions, wether the player is inside or outside:

Code: ags

function region1_Standing()
{
  if (IsKeyPressed(eKeySpace) == 1){
    if (cEgo.Baseline == 720){
      oFront1.TweenTransparency(1.0, 100, eEaseOutTween, eNoBlockTween);
      cEgo.Baseline = 716;
    }
    else {
      oFront1.TweenTransparency(1.0, 0, eEaseOutTween, eNoBlockTween);
      cEgo.Baseline = 720;
    }
  }
}

How can I get the Text-GUI to understand wether the player is inside or outside?

Never mind, I just found out why that is a bad solution:

(There is another way; you could use IsKeyPressed() and handle the interaction directly, the only problem is that holding the button even for a short time will trigger the event multiple times.)

I'll change it.
So then there's only the problem of text left.

In general, the way I found to do this is to
a) draw hotspots on the floor in front of what would conventionally be the hotspot, acting as region
b) use regions for objects, making sure their ID matches; region #1 for object #1, etc.

Since my character moves only along the x-axis (platform style), I just figured I'd use regions for everything. So I set up my regions like this:

Code: ags

function region3_Standing()
{
  if (IsKeyPressed(eKeySpace) == 1){
    if (oDoor1.Transparency == 0){
      cEgo.LockView(26);
      cEgo.Animate(cEgo.Loop, 1, eOnce, eBlock, eForwards);
      oDoor1.TweenTransparency(1.0, 100, eEaseOutTween, eBlockTween);
      cEgo.Animate(cEgo.Loop, 1, eOnce, eBlock, eBackwards);
      cEgo.UnlockView();
    }
    else if (oDoor1.Transparency == 100){
      cEgo.LockView(26);
      cEgo.Animate(cEgo.Loop, 1, eOnce, eBlock, eForwards);
      oDoor1.TweenTransparency(1.0, 0, eEaseOutTween, eBlockTween);
      cEgo.Animate(cEgo.Loop, 1, eOnce, eBlock, eBackwards);
      cEgo.UnlockView();
   }
  }
}

Is this a bad way to solve it? 

As for displaying the message, does it change for the hotspots? Or is always "space: interact"  plus a list of inventory items?

I'm thinking space for interact always. Currently I'm using down and up for going down or up stairs, but I'm thinking about just using space, since you really can't interact with the stairs, other than walking up or down on them.
So yeah, space: interact, and a list of inventory items!